and israel will not tolerate the situation. i hope that hamas and the other terror organizations in gaza got the message. if not, israel is prepared to take whatever action is necessary to defend our people. >> joining me now is former assistant secretary of state for public affairs and spokesman for the u.s. department of state p.j. crowley. thanks for being with us. how serious will this conflict become from what you've seen here? >> we know it can become very serious. we've had these experiences in the past. you know, some handled at a relatively modest level of violence but obviously we've had a serious incursion by israel into gaza before in response to just these kinds of barrage of rocket attacks. so this could escalate. >> do you see it as a repeat of 2008-2009? >> i mean, on the ground potentially, but obviously there are different reasons here. you know, on the one hand you have a dramatically different landscape. you have a new normal in the middle east in the aftermath of the arab spring and you're seeing very diffe